No. 3 of '17: Federer turns the tables on Nadal with aggression in Oz

With 2017 nearing its close, it's time to decide what was the year's best match. Steve Tignor will conclude his top 10 contest countdown over the next two weeks—but which was your favorite? We want to know, so vote for your favorite match in our poll.

Tennis Channel will air the Top 3 matches with the most votes on December 31st, in full.

Roger Federer d. Rafael Nadal 6-4, 3-6, 6-1, 3-6, 6-3, Australian Open final

After losing his first match to Rafael Nadal, in Miami in 2004, a 22-year-old Roger Federer remarked on the heavy spin and high bounce that his 17-year-old Spanish opponent created with his shots.

“That’s a struggle I had today,” Federer said. “I tried to get out of it, but kind of couldn’t.”

Thirteen years and 34 meetings later, as the two dueled into the fifth set and the fourth hour of the 2017 Australian Open final, Federer was still trying to find a way out from behind Nadal’s high-kicking forehand.

The shot had cost Federer his last six Grand Slam matches against Nadal, dating back to 2007. And by the time Rafa took a 3-1 lead in the fifth set in Melbourne, it looked nearly certain to cost him a seventh. Nadal was bearing down hard and hitting with more power and conviction than he had all night.

This time, though, Federer had a new, semi-secret weapon up his sleeve, one that he and his coach, Ivan Ljubicic, had developed during his long 2016 layoff: his own backhand. Federer’s one-hander had always been his weak link against Rafa, but with Ljubicic’s encouragement, Federer had been swinging out on it in a way that he hadn’t for much of his career. Already that week, it had helped him survive long five-set matches against two younger, hard-hitting players, Kei Nishikori and Stan Wawrinka.

Against Nadal, Federer had used his souped-up backhand to break serve at 3-3 in the first set, and his newly sharpened backhand return to earn a second break in the third set. Instead of barreling to the net on Rod Laver Arena’s newly quickened court, Federer had attacked with his forehand and backhand, and he would finish the match with 73 winners. After 13 years of being tied down by Rafa, he had vowed to break out and play his game this time.

“I told myself to play free,” Federer said. “Be free in your head, be free in your shots, go for it. The brave will be rewarded here.”

In the fifth set, Federer would finally break free of Rafa for good. It began with Nadal serving, up a break, at 3-2. Rafa looped a forehand to Federer’s backhand; this time, instead of trying to climb on top of it, he sent an even higher loop back, which pushed Rafa deep behind the baseline. After gaining the court-position advantage, Federer took a backhand on the rise and sent it crosscourt for a blazing, match-changing, late-career-changing winner.

Nadal was shaken. At 30-30, rather than attack a mid-court forehand the way he had for the last set and a half, he hesitated and pushed it long. When Federer broke with a forehand winner, the momentum had shifted. He was free again.

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“I had opportunities early on in the fifth to get back on even terms,” Federer said. “I could have left disappointed there and accepted that fact. I kept on fighting. I kept on believing.”

Federer’s level had risen to match Nadal’s, and over the last two games they produced the best tennis of the tournament. With Nadal serving at 3-4, Federer flew toward the net to put away a forehand and went up 0-40. Rafa answered with two service winners, an ace, and a forehand winner of his own.

At deuce, they packed a career’s worth of brilliance into one whiplash-inducing side-to-side rally. Forehand blurred into backhand, backhand blurred into forehand, as both players refused to give any ground. In the past, Nadal would have found a way to come out on top of a point like this. This time it was Federer who reflexed a winner down the line. For a split-second, he stared at what he had done in disbelief.

Federer did believe though, enough to climb out of a 15-40 hole in the final game. For this he can thank his serve—he finished with 20 aces to Rafa’s four—and his go-for-broke game plan. Federer saved a break point with an all-or-nothing, inside-out forehand winner, and won the title a few minutes later with another forehand winner crosscourt. Rafa challenged, but Hawk-Eye revealed that Federer’s shot had landed smack on the sideline. It was fitting. As was their embrace at the net.

At the time, the match seemed like it might be a final return to glory for both men; instead, it was a sign of domination to come. After failing to win any Grand Slam titles since 2012 and 2014, respectively, Federer and Nadal would go on to split the four majors between them and finish the year No. 1 and No. 2 in the rankings.

While the first four sets of the Aussie Open final were largely one-sided, from an historical perspective this was clearly the most significant match of the season. If Federer had missed a few more backhands in the fifth set, or Nadal had made that fateful short forehand at 3-2, the result might have been reversed. Rather than Federer leading Nadal 19-16 in their two-man major-title race, he would be ahead 18-17 to start 2018. But Federer did make those backhands, and he would keep making them against Rafa—Federer would win all four of their 2017 meetings.

You could see the script beginning to flip during the trophy ceremony in Melbourne. The last time they had played a final there, in 2009, Nadal won in five sets, and he consoled a tearful Federer during the trophy ceremony. From that indelible moment on, their rivalry became legend, and their names remained linked even as their on-court fortunes waxed and waned. Now, more friends than rivals, Roger and Rafa’s fortunes had brought them back to the same podium. This time it was Federer’s turn to console a disappointed Nadal.

“I would have been happy to accept a draw with Rafa,” Federer said with a glance back in the Spaniard’s direction. Somehow, his words felt believable, and just right. Prescient, too: Over the next 10 months, millions of tennis fans would be happy to see Roger and Rafa return to the top of the game, and fight to a draw.